This invention relates to a braking device for stopping the free sliding of a ski on snow when the ski becomes separated from the ski boot in an uncontrolled fall.
Safety straps are often used to prevent a ski from sliding downhill after the ski has been released from the ski boot by the safety binding in a fall. Such a safety strap is attached to the ski and to the leg of the skier. However, during an uncontrolled fall, a skier may tumble many times and the ski, being connected to the skier's leg by the safety strap, can make wild gyrations referred to as windmilling. This has caused many injuries by the ski hitting the skier on the head or other parts of the body.
Ski stoppers were introduced to prevent this type of accident. However, such ski stoppers have not been widely accepted because situations are frequently encountered where a safety strap would be advantageous.
For example, if a binding should release accidentally while a skier is riding up the hill on a chair lift, the ski would drop off and the skier would have to ride to the top of the lift without the ski. Then he would have the difficult task of finding and retrieving the ski from the slope. Also, in a mild fall, it may be desirable to keep a released ski within easy reach. Other disadvantages of presently known ski stoppers are that they interfere during stepping in and stepping out of the binding, they may be effective in only one direction and they present protrusions on the sides of the skis which are objectionable when the skis are run on their edges.
Objects of the present invention are, therefore, to provide an improved ski stop which is not subject to the above-mentioned disadvantages, to provide a ski stop which retains certain advantageous features of a safety strap without endangering the skier, to provide a device of universal application to all known makes and styles of bindings and skis, and to provide a device of relatively simple and inexpensive construction which is superior to conventional safety straps and presently known ski stoppers.